Newsletter

Topeka couple compiles Helping Hands Humane Society's history

Shelter hopes to boost memberships to sustain new facility

JAN BILES/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL Topeka residents Mary Ann and Roscoe Earp have compiled newspaper articles and other information about Helping Hands Humane Society into five archival-quality scrapbooks. The Earps have been involved with the humane society for more than 40 years.

FILE PHOTO Audrey McCaig, director of the Helping Hands Humane Society Shelter, has her hands full in July 1977 as the cat count at the shelter rose. The shelter had more than twice the usual amount of cats, mostly mothers with litters, and was over the usual dog count by about a third. Space was as such a premium that some puppies and kittens were sharing quarters.

FILE PHOTO Members of a bricklaying class at Fort Riley put their training to use in April 1972 as they begin to lay blocks for 100 pens at the Helping Hands Humane Society Shelter. The 22 men completed the pens and a new office and helped construct a building to replace the old shelter.

FILE PHOTO Tracy Ridgeway, wearing hat, and Dave Merritt work on a soil pipe in the foreground as other apprenctices and journeymen with Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 165 work in September 1971 to complete the underground installation of plumbing for new pens at the Helping Hands Humane Society Shelter.

FILE PHOTO Marion Baker, an employee at the Helping Hands Humane Society Shelter, dishes out food to dogs waiting to be adopted in September 1975.

FILE PHOTO A puppy, one of 30 in a pen at the Helping Hands Humane Society in April 1967, is snuggled by the society?s founder, Ruby Bear, who came to Topeka from Chicago that month for a visit. When Bear began her humane work in Topeka in the 1930s, the shelter resembled a chicken coop.

It was June 28, 1967, and she was looking to adopt a puppy because her 18-year-old dog, Taffy, was aging and wouldn't live much longer. She was startled by the number of animals in the cramped facility.

Earp returned home with Twiggy, a Pomeranian-Pekingese mix, and a new understanding of the importance of the shelter to the Topeka community. It wasn't long before she and her husband, Roscoe, became members of the humane society and active in improving the facility and its services.

"We found our niche there," Earp said.

Within a year, Earp was president of the humane society board and standing before the Topeka City Council asking that the $150 a month — $1,800 a year — received from the city for the shelter's operation be increased. After she pointed out the animal shelter in Lawrence received $1,500 a month in city funds, the city council voted to bump the shelter's allotment to $1,250 a month, or $15,000 a year.

"When you feel a need somewhere, you can't give up," she said.

Over the past several months, the Earps have created five archival-quality scrapbooks that tell the history of Helping Hands Humane Society. They thought it would be a nice gift to correspond with the shelter's move earlier this month into its new location at 5720 S.W. 21st St.

"I'd been collecting these things in boxes for 45 years and thought I needed to put them together for the new shelter," she said of the newspaper articles, photos and other information in the scrapbooks. "It was the first time I had read some of it, and I thought it was interesting that the humane society started out as helping horses and children."

A DECADES-OLD LEGACY

The first humane society in Topeka was the Foster Society, established by Judge C.G. Foster around 1890 to "look to the welfare of every living creature," according to information compiled by Earp.

A 1919 report indicated the Foster Society — made up of a small group of volunteers — investigated 225 cases of cruelty and neglect of children; 103 incidences of horses and mules being worked in unfit conditions; 23 cases of cruelty to chickens because of overcrowding; and many other cases of cruelty to animals. Those wishing to support the Foster Society were asked to donate $1 or more.

On May 4, 1938, a charter was filed for Shawnee County Humane Society Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by Ruth Flinkinger Bear. Members of the society would pick up animals in their own cars, buy food for them and care for them in their own yards.

That changed in 1944, when a gift of $1,000 helped the organization obtain three acres at 1216 S.E. Republican, according to the articles contained in the scrapbooks. Because of zoning problems, the shelter purchased land two years later at 2625 N.W. Rochester Road, where it constructed a new building.

Like much of Topeka, the flood of 1951 left the shelter unusable and destroyed all of the humane society's records. One volunteer, Lutie Kinzer, kept 35 dogs from the shelter at her home as the shelter recovered.

In 1954, a new 50-by-70-foot animal shelter was constructed at the site. Two years later, a pet cemetery was established on the grounds, and in 1959, a separate shelter room for cats was built.

In 1963, the Topeka City Council agreed to allow the humane society to shelter dogs being impounded at the Gage Park Police Dog Training Area for $50 a month — later increased to $150 a month.

The Shawnee County Humane Society changed its name in 1965 to the Helping Hands Humane Society, with the goal of broadening it services beyond Topeka and Shawnee County to northeast Kansas.

In 1974, after six to seven years of planning, a new, $170,000 shelter was opened on the Rochester Road property. The concrete-and-steel facility included 100 pens, a two-bedroom apartment for the kennel manager, a kitchen, office area and conference room. The 13,000-square-foot shelter could care for 5,000 animals a year.

In 2008, a fundraising campaign was launched to build a new 39,000-square-foot shelter, but when the Dillons store at S.W. 21st became available, the humane society decided to purchase and renovate the structure into a $7.2 million state-of-the-art facility.

"We have a wonderful board and staff now," Earp said. "They are the people who have accomplished this."

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Earp said she hopes the scrapbooks she and her husband have created will spark interest in the humane society's history and boost its membership.

Bill Acree, executive director of Helping Hands Humane Society, said increasing memberships is more necessary now that the new facility has opened.

The shelter has an operating budget of $1.1 million. Of that amount, he said, less than $250,000 is allocated by the city and county to shelter stray and abused animals.

"More people are needed to help sustain and grow the budget for the new facility," he said.

Acree estimated the number of existing humane society memberships at more than 1,000. A membership costs $20.

"If 150,000 people in the county bought a membership, wouldn't it be wonderful?" he said.

Last year, the shelter, which has 30 full-time-equivalent employees, took in more than 7,000 animals.

HELPING HANDS HUMANE SOCIETY

What: A private, nonprofit agency that provides sanctuary for animals in need of care and protection, adopts animals into homes, reunites lost animals with owners, promotes sterilization of animals and provides educational programs

What: A private, nonprofit agency that provides sanctuary for animals in need of care and protection, adopts animals into homes, reunites lost animals with owners, promotes sterilization of animals and provides educational programs